DuPont cuts costs, boosts profits in third quarter

The millions in cost cuts made by DuPont drove profits higher in the third quarter. Now all the chemical maker needs is for sales to rebound.

Outside of China, DuPont Co. saw double-digit sales declines almost everywhere, though conditions were better than in the first half of the year, the company said.

Chemical makers were among the first to be hit by soaring crude and energy costs last year. Then they were hit by plummeting sales in the U.S. and abroad as the housing and automotive markets imploded.

Over the past nine months Wilmington-based DuPont Co. has pared its costs by $900 million, slashed jobs and for the first time in a year it posted fatter quarterly profits.

But sales in the U.S. fell 21 percent over the past three months, and by 27 percent in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as DuPont's customers did some cost cutting of their own.

Sales in China, however, rose 7 percent, according to an Oct. 20 article in The New York Times.

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